Barnard is really a dream school for me, and I am going to apply ED there. I am just wondering what the best AP courses I should take to apply there. Which ones do the school look more favorably on?
oh honey,
You are going at this completely backwards.
The generic answer is that academically competitive schools look for students who push themselves, and whose GCs will say that they have taken the ‘most rigorous’ classes available to them. In general, competitive schools like to see the typical ‘prep’ path of 4 years each of English, Math, Social Sciences, Lab Sciences and a non-native language. But what that means exactly varies from school to school and student to student.
Instead, read this::
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways/
It is from MIT, but applies to pretty much all the super-selectives.
Take 4 years of all 4 core classes (math, science, social studies, english) and take the highest level of each you can. It also depends on your intended major. If you plan on going into PoliSci, take AP GovPol, if you plan on going into Biology, take AP Biology. There’s no recommended list anyone can give you. Just take as many as is reasonable for you and that relate to your interests.
I will also add that self studying is generally not helpful.
Take what’s available to you at your school. As noted, 4 years of core courses, including foreign language at the most rigorously level you can manage.
There are “easier” APs like stats and human geography that are not going to boost rigor.
Agree with momofsenior1. Only self-study if you know for a fact that its something you’ll ace. Go ahead and take some released exams from previous years if you’re unsure, those will give you an idea of what you’ll do best at.
IMHO, even acing a self-study AP isn’t worth the efforts. I’ve heard several top school Adcoms say that AP scores without taking the class aren’t really meaningful to them. A senior admissions person from CMU flat-out said he wouldn’t look at them.
Right, @RichinPitt. I have sat through many, many college road shows where they AOs straight-up say ‘please don’t’.
But- the OP didn’t specify self-studying, just subjects, so we don’t know the intent.
It may not impact admissions, but it can make a big difference AFTER admissions. Barnard is fairly generous with AP credit – so definitely worthwhile to pick up the extra points. So definitely worthwhile – just not for the purpose that the OP was asking about.
For admissions, what would be more important is to take an AP course (if offered) in areas tied to the student’s stated interests. That is, if an applicant is trying to sell herself to the college as a prospective math major – it’s going to look strange if she didn’t take AP Calc. On the other hand, if she is presenting as a potential history or poli sci major, then courses like APUSH or AP Gov are important. The admissions officers are looking for consistency within an application, including a match between academic record and choices and the student’s stated interests and goals.
Hi Guys, thank you so much for all the answers. I am actually homeschooled, so any APs I take are going to be self-study, although I have a math instructor.
Also, I want to go into computer science, but I’m not sure if I should apply undecided since it is a liberal art school.
In common use on CC, ‘self-studying’ for an AP means studying for an AP exam without doing the coursework in it. Taking APs in subjects for which you are doing coursework - although you may in fact be doing it on your own! - is different, whether the class is labelled ‘AP’ or not. For example, at my collegekids HS there was no class called “AP English”, but although many students took the exam (and many did some test prep with review books), it wasn’t considered ‘self-study’. A fair few students think that self-studying for APs (so they can apply with more APs than their classmates) will impress AOs- which it doesn’t.
On the other hand, for a homeschooler, you have lots of choices! most of which grow out of the curriculum you have been building, and what resources you have available to you. It’s hard to give any useful advice, as there are a bunch of factors: when you you are planning to apply, what your coursework has been so far, etc.
Are you thinking of applying ‘undecided’ b/c you think that applying as a prospective CS major will be a negative at a “Liberal Arts School”? If so, I suggest a quick refresher on the term “Liberal Arts”, which in Roman times were considered to be arithmetic, geometry, astronomy (or astrology), grammar, logic, rhetoric, and music; and in modern times are considered to be life sciences, natural sciences, logic/math/stats, philosophy, social sciences and creative arts. The idea of ‘liberal arts’ is that an educated person has some grounding in all of the areas. Although the Barnard “Foundations” is not as prescriptive as Columbia’s “Core”, they have the same purpose: a well rounded education balanced against the specialized learning of your major.
In a piece of unasked for advice: schools like Barnard demand strong writing skills. I have seen a lot of homeschooled students (and others! from low-performing public schools, or non-rigorous private schools, etc) who are otherwise fully prepared for college- except for writing skills. IF there is any chance that is you, as soon as you get to college, go find the writing center and make friends with them, right from the beginning. That’s why they are there, and it can make all the difference.
I’d just add – your chances aren’t going to be better or worse depending on whether or not you specify a major. But it is VERY important that you frame an application in such a way that the ad com gets a clear (and fairly simple) sense of who you are – what you would bring to campus, what you will likely do once you are on campus.
This goes back to the comment above about applying “sideways” – you will not do yourself any favors by trying fit the role of the generic “what the college wants” candidate. Your application is going to be read by someone who goes through dozens of apps every single day, who only has a very short time to read through the app, form an impression, and make some notes. If the admissions reader goes through your app at 10 am, will they even remember anything about you at 2pm? If one staff person was talking to another about a candidate, how would they describe that person (in 10 words or less)?
It’s ok if an applicant is a computer nerd, it’s ok if they are artsy, it’s ok if they are politically involved— and you definitely do not need to have won any awards or achieved special recognition. But it’s just not going to get you anywhere if your app is “meh”. And even though as a homeschooler it probably benefits you a lot to sit for AP exams – because it is one way of validating your coursework — it also is the sort of information that just doesn’t help the college differentiate one application from another. I mean, my daughter came in with high scores on APUSH and AP English — but so did practically everyone else. It’s what she had the others didn’t that really made the difference.
For home schooled students, the more AP tests you take, the better.
Home schooled student transcripts create a dilemma for admissions officers, they have to determine: What does a 4.0 from Mom mean?
The best way to put your transcript in context is to provide lots of impressive standardized test scores that show how your HS achievements compare against a known standard.